Over the years there has been much back and forth about how abortion affects a woman's mental health. From the feminism of the 1960s to the current "safe, legal and rare", we rarely hear about abortion without it being tied to a woman's state of mind. Back in the 1960s, women needed the right to abortion to get rid of their traditional role as mother and caretaker; today we hear countless politicians talk about how hard it is to make the decision to have an abortion.

Recently, mandatory counseling laws have been enacted to expand informed consent to, often, uninformed consent - telling women that abortion causes breast cancer or that she is killing a separate human being. Some of these mandatory counseling laws include provisions about how depressed a woman will be after an abortion (not how depressed she may be...she may also feel elated).

"The best scientific evidence published indicates that among adult
women who have an unplanned pregnancy, the relative risk of mental
health problems is no greater if they have a single elective
first-trimester abortion or deliver that pregnancy," said Brenda Major,
PhD, chair of the task force. "The evidence regarding the relative
mental health risks associated with multiple abortions is more
uncertain."

The task force found that some studies indicate that some women do
experience sadness, grief and feelings of loss following an abortion,
and some may experience "clinically significant disorders, including
depression and anxiety." However, the task force found "no evidence
sufficient to support the claim that an observed association between
abortion history and mental health was caused by the abortion per se,
as opposed to other factors."

The report noted that other co-occurring risk factors, including
poverty, prior exposure to violence, a history of emotional problems, a
history of drug or alcohol use, and prior unwanted births predispose
women to experience both unwanted pregnancies and mental health
problems after a pregnancy, irrespective of how the pregnancy is
resolved. Failures to control for these co-occurring risk factors, the
task force noted, may lead to reports of associations between abortion
history and mental health problems that are misleading.

The report noted that women have abortions for many different reasons
and within different personal, social, economic and cultural
circumstances, all of which could affect a woman's mental state
following abortion. "Consequently," the task force wrote, "global
statements about the psychological impact of abortion can be
misleading."

According to the report, women terminating a wanted pregnancy, who
perceived pressure from others to terminate their pregnancy, or who
perceived a need to keep their abortion secret from their family and
friends because of stigma associated with abortion, were more likely to
experience negative psychological reactions following abortion.

Of course there are lots of women who regret having an abortion, some who become dedicated anti-choice crusaders, like Leslee Unruh. But that doesn't mean that abortion is the wrong choice for everyone and will permanently scare the psyche of every woman (or that only people who have had multiple abortions can support a woman candidate). In fact, if a woman freely chooses abortion and isn't judged for it, it sounds like she'll be much better off. So yes, the pro-choice movement should be involved in post-abortion counseling, but for my money, I'd prefer pre-abortion counseling. This counseling could not only make sure that a woman understands the medical procedure she's about to have, but make sure that she's not being coerced, that she has a support system, that if she has drug, alcohol or violence problems in her life that she is referred for help. These are the efforts we can make if we're interested in improving mental health for women having abortions.

Also, you know how I've been talking about HPV and other cancers, besides cervical, for like, a billion years now? My sister sent me an e-mail today saying that my theory re: anal cancer might be right. (I told her that, um, it's not a theory, it's just not common knowledge) She sent me an article from an Australian paper on oral cancer and HPV. Again, it's not news, but whatever. The Canadian government is now thinking about vaccinating men against HPV too.

Speaking of HPV, y'all know that I have ties to Qiagen, which makes the only HPV test on the market in the US. Anyway, Qiagen is appealing a patent loss which would allow another company to make an HPV test.

Should we talk more about patents? Barr won a patent suit against Bayer for Yasmin. Since this happened months ago, you probably already have a generic pack of Yasmin in your hands if you want one. Bayer stock fell after the news.

I'm really not going to talk about FDA preemption here, but I do want to let you all know what's going on in the courts. Here's the quick and dirty version of the recent Supreme Court case: This guy had a balloon angioplasty, and depending upon which case you read, his doctor either did or did not inflate the balloon properly. In any case, the thing blew up in his heart, almost killing him (but didn't). He sued the manufacturer of the balloon catheter, and in February the Supreme Court ruled that federal FDA law didn't allow for state tort suits, which is how you sue someone when crap like this happens. There is a Supreme Court case coming up testing the same law, but with respect to drugs, not devices. The reason I'm telling you this is that it's J&J's defense for suits regarding Ortho-Evra, the patch. Plus, it's one of the things I've been geeking out about lately.

Have you or anyone you know had a hard time paying for an abortion? A clinic in Iowa wants to know.

We don't have a lot of deaths from abortion anymore, thanks, largely, due to legal abortions and antibiotics. Occasionally, we do, and it's just tragic. Of course, there's more here than just a teenager dies of abortion. She had a legal abortion and bled to death waiting for a transfusion, and, it sounds like it was also an incomplete abortion. Plus, she didn't want to have an abortion, but her boyfriend (and maybe his family) wanted her to.

Okay, I'm going to have to sort through a whole lot of stuff, and figure out how to use this upgraded software.

State News:Illinois has a law requiring pharmacists to dispense emergency contraception (Plan B). This law is being challenged in Illinois Supreme Court. According to the article, this may become a procedural issue, one of standing, rather than on on the merits. Nonetheless, it will have ramifications on similar state laws, or on state legislatures considering similar laws.

Kansas is considering some restrictive laws, New Hampshire is looking at mandatory counseling for teens,

Foreign News:Abortion rates in Australia are declining. The abortion debate in Jamaica continues.

That's all I'm going to post for today, and every day I'm going to try to post a bunch more stories that I have bookmarked for y'all.

This week was not only MLK Day, but Roe v. Wade Day. Additionally, I lost another family member to cancer. In any case, there was a lot you should have read about:

Roe v. Wade Day/Abortion:Frances Kissling (formerly of CFFC) and Kate Michelman (formerly of NARAL) wrote an op-ed in the LA Times about abortion, and, really, the shift in perception around abortion. They say that one thing the pro-choice folks need to engage in is a discussion about the "challenges" of the movement, including the judgment of women for getting pregnant in the first place.

Saletan says that pro-choicers need to message abortion with the goal of zero, same as teen pregnancy.

Reproducing:Related to the LA Times op-ed, a study out about Indiana shows that about 80% of black babies are born to unwed mothers. Single mothers have lower levels of education and higher rates of poverty than married mothers, although that doesn't necessarily include those older single moms.

Italy has ruled that it is now legal to do pre-implantation genetic diagnosis of embryos. The ruling, applicable only to the Rome area, will be reviewed by a higher court. Also, don't forget, that in Italy only 3 embryos can be implanted at a time.

So while feminism opened up options for a lot of women, there was an ensuing backlash against feminism, and now there's this embrace of everything under the sun as feminism. Want to walk around with a dog collar being led by your boyfriend? Who's to say that's not feminist? Stripping? Feminist. Housewife? Totally feminist (not by all). I'm not about to make any statements about it right now, but it certainly seems to be a trend that the idea of "choice" whether related to feminism or abortion, is in the eye of the beholder. I mean, is one's choice really off bounds for social comment?

Science:The Pill has an extended effect on preventing ovarian cancer, the number one cause of gynecologic cancer deaths in the United States. Apparently, this is leading folks in the U.K. to renew a call to make the Pill available over-the-counter. Additionally, caffeine decreases the risk of ovarian cancer, while alcohol and tobacco use play no role in it.

As always, there's way more to blog about, but I have to get moving. Have a great weekend!

The papers are all abuzz with the recently-released study showing that abortion is down in the United States - at the lowest rate since abortion was Constitutionally protected. Since 1990, surgical abortions are down 25%. The decline in abortion could be positive (more access to contraception, fewer unplanned pregnancies) or negative (less access to abortion, less access to contraceptives) and part of it could be a substitute to RU-486 - we really don't know what's causing the decline. Read the full report (.pdf).

However, we do know that the US has higher fertility rates than other Western countries, due to "a decline in contraceptive use, a drop in access to abortion, poor education and poverty."

In other countries, the stigma of abortions, even legal ones, has led to a rise in illegal abortions, which, as you all know, are not safe. Both medical staff and patients feel this societal sting, and don't want to take part in it.
"It is poor women who cannot countenance another mouth to feed." The women who have the lowest access to medical care and education are the ones hardest hit by the criminalization of abortion.

Reproductive Rights:So, I guess this comes as a surprise, but women who have abortions think about the kind of life they could provide for a child, and the lives they want to provide for their existing children. I'm not sure how I feel about this report. I think it's still in that vein of "abortion is a hard decision" and tries to un-demonize women who have abortions.

I can't find the original article, but a letter to the editor in a Massachusetts newspaper criticizes a man whose girlfriends had four abortion for his "conversion" to anti-choice advocacy. The author writes that the man should have been responsible then, not now, and includes being responsible to mean sticking around. The author seems to imply that if men would stay with women more, they would continue their pregnancies, which I'm not so sure about. I do, however, agree that anti-choice advocates could emphasize the role of men in unplanned pregnancy as much as the abortion itself.

Kentucky is considering a bill that would require women seeking abortions to have an ultrasound. At my old clinic, every woman had an ultrasound, at the least, to measure fetal size/age. I would think that's important for knowledge of the type of abortion needed, the amount of drugs, etc. But I also am not a doctor, so I don't know. Nor is Senator Jack Westwood, so I don't know why he's bringing this up.

For information on what it's really like to be an abortion doctor, read "This Common Secret: My Journey as an Abortion Doctor" by two doctors from Montana.

In other state news, Tennessee is thinking about amending its Constitution to shrink abortion rights. The Constitution has been interpreted to provide greater abortion rights than the U.S. Constitution, and therefore invalidated a law requiring a waiting period. The amendment would read that nothing in the Tennessee Constitution protects a right to abortion.

The American College of Ob-Gyns has released a new ethics opinion on doctor refusals, calling for limits on conscientious refusals, especially those that impose religious or moral beliefs, or are not scientifically based.

Science & Health:Following a Mediterranean diet when pregnant lowers the risk for the babies to have asthma. That could be better worded, but it's not.

I'm reading this book called The Humble Little Condom, and I'm learning a little more about syphilis, which, apparently, Christopher Columbus brought back to Europe with him. The New World syphilis wasn't fatal, I guess, but it mutated somewhere along the way to a potentially deadly disease.

Generally, we know that young college-educated women are waiting to have children, and, often putting less emphasis on romantic relationships. Additionally, the idea that couples in love must get married is no longer a given, as almost half of Americans say they don't need a marriage certificate to prove their love. The Post writes about those who aren't waiting to have kids - but these are still women in their late 20s. My friend RJ & I wonder if the model of college/graduate school/marriage/family really works for women. We're in our 30s by the time we're having kids, with fertility issues, less energy, and a body that doesn't bounce back as easily. I wonder if the college/marriage/family/graduate school model wouldn't be better?

It's a new year, and a new legislative session, not to mention that a whole bunch of laws go into effect this week.

As for me, I'm getting over a cold which had me on the couch watching the History Channel's marathon The History of Sex, which has a few errors in it, but was overall an enjoyable quick tour through the ages. My New Year's resolution is to cut out dairy, and start eating more organic food.

So anyway, what do you need to know for this upcoming year? First, vote (make sure you are registered to vote in your state). Today are the Iowa Caucuses, then the New Hampshire primaries, and February 5th is Super Tuesday. Do I really have to tell you what's at stake (like, Roe)?

So let's talk about local laws:

Virginia will hear about increased penalties for domestic violence offenders and repealing the requirement that women take lie detector tests when they report a rape.

We'll see more about jurisprudence for civilians serving overseas, as more stories like this one come to light. Congressman Poe's office tells me that the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act is the law on the books that would cover this, but many others have said the law is too narrowly crafted to create any kind of legal punishment.

The Times reviews a book on a fertility diet, and not very favorably. I guess people are more interested in fertility, as it seems birth rates are on the rise in the US. The article says that more affluent people are having more children, and calls children a luxury good. I'd be curious to see more about the rates related to income, and if the US has a higher rate of fertility than many other industrialized nations because of our immigration policies.

Schizophrenia may start in utero, and may be linked to maternal diseases like the flu.

ForeignTeen will have access to birth control over the counter in Britain. Meanwhile, South Africa is taking the opposite tactic, and outlawing teens kissing in public. (The actual law, all 80 pages of it, is here as a .pdf. I didn't read it, so I don't know the exact language used.)

You all, I'm sure, have been following the rape case in Saudi Arabia. Slate asks why there isn't more of an uproar over how Saudi (and many other countries) treat women, generally. The article references the huge boycotts of South Africa regarding its policy of apartheid.

So I'm watching the post-Thanksgiving morning news shows, debating with myself whether or not it would be a good thing if Roe fell, as many Presidential candidates hope for. On one hand, Roe being overturned would certainly be bad for access to abortion. On the other hand, if voters continuously choose to elect anti-choice legislators, why should they be immune from the consequences of those bad choices. Were Roe to fall, voters as well as legislators would have to walk the walk. Right now, for example, there's a man in Ohio that continuously gets re-elected, and his only issue is abortion. The people of Ohio are insulated by his election in part by the other Ohio legislators, but also, to a large extent, by the federal judiciary, upon whom we too greatly rely on for the protection of our rights. It's probably a little Old Testament of me, but I'm wondering if actually giving these anti-choicers more leeway won't actually mean that people eventually vote against them, once they have to deal with the consequences of the vote...

Parental Rights
In Kansas, a gay man agreed to donate sperm to a friend for artificial insemination. She filed papers to terminate his parental rights, which is appears is the default for Kansas sperm donors. He is fighting, and wants to be involved with the children and pay child support.
In the UK, a woman has received court permission to keep her pregnancy a secret from the man who impregnated her, as it was a one-night stand. The court ruled that she alone has the decision-making power regarding the adoption she seeks.

Happy Halloween! As the end of the year approaches I'm filled with thoughts of what I need to do, want to do, and have to do before the calendar rolls over. Such an arbitrary date, but it means something to me nonetheless. And what about the feminist movement? What have we actually accomplished this year? What's my role in all of this? What do we have left to do? And what can we get done in the next 8 weeks?

This Maine middle school that is going to allow girls to get the Pill without parental
consent is big news. I guess I shouldn’t
be surprised. One of the issues, besides
the fact that these are young girls, is that they won’t need parental
permission to get the Pill. In most
schools, kids need parental consent to take an aspirin.

Reproductive health is different. Twenty five states allow minors to have
access to contraception without parental consent, and all states allow minors
to access STI services.
Of course, AGI has a great chart, by
state.
Maine,
the chart shows, allows minors to access contraception for health reasons, if
the minor is married, or if the minor herself is a parent.

, and certainly, that’s the fear. So, again, while I think most people aren’t
wholly comfortable with the idea of an 11 year old getting contraception, or
having sex, I think most of us would be less comfortable with the idea of a 12
year old mom.